Rand Paul Petition

If you’re interested in signing a petition asking Rand Paul to support Red & Black Café’s right to bar cops from their premises, click here.

(I don’t know how thrilled the Café would be with Paul’s support – but I doubt they’re at much risk of getting it ….)

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24 Responses to Rand Paul Petition

  1. Kevin Carson June 6, 2010 at 10:08 pm #

    Oh, I don’t know, Roderick. As strongly as he believes in private business owners’ freedom of association, I expect he’ll be all over this.

    • Anon73 June 7, 2010 at 1:42 am #

      It’s one of those times when I can’t tell if you’re joking Kevin.

  2. Kevin Carson June 7, 2010 at 1:53 am #

    Joking? Why would I be joking? Surely you’re not suggesting Rand Paul is the kind of man who would defend private discrimination against black folks, but oppose it against cops, just to pander to the redneck sympathies of his Tea Party constituents. Heaven forfend!

    • Brad Spangler June 7, 2010 at 10:51 am #

      And surely the people behind the petition wouldn’t be so evil as to attempt to point out any such purported inconsistency.

  3. John H. June 7, 2010 at 3:41 am #

    Has anyone made an attempt to bring the petition to the awareness of Rand Paul’s campaign people? While a clever idea, just having an online petition doesn’t mean Rand Paul’s going to be conscious of it to make a decision.

    • Brad Spangler June 7, 2010 at 10:52 am #

      I Imagine they’re going to collect a few more signatures first.

      • Roderick June 7, 2010 at 11:59 am #

        Yeah, it’s only in the low 50s at the moment.

  4. Tracy Saboe June 7, 2010 at 11:10 am #

    I think it’s a great idea. It would get the left off his back don’t you think?

    • Roderick June 7, 2010 at 12:00 pm #

      The radical left might like the idea of barring cops, but the mainstream left is going to be a lot less sympathetic.

    • Rad Geek June 7, 2010 at 7:14 pm #

      This just in: Tea Party conservatives are ignorant police statist blowhards who prefer to make Dirty Hippy jokes rather than standing on anti-statist principle.

      Film at 11.

      • Louis B. June 7, 2010 at 9:23 pm #

        Rad Geek, do you think the police should exist? Oh why do you hate society?

        I’m not big on dirty hippy stuff, but this almost makes me want to pay the place a visit.

        • Louis B. June 7, 2010 at 9:48 pm #

          P.S. I’m surprised he didn’t slip in a mention of Somalia.

    • JOR June 9, 2010 at 12:38 am #

      Actual comment from on that video:
      “The hypocrisy shown in this video of the Oregon Tea Party is astounding! Its seems like the Oregon Tea Party and the anarchists of Red and Black are very close cousins. Both? with their disrespect of leadership. In every way I support the police officers of PPD and in now way do I condone the actions of Red and Black…but you all aren’t too pretty either.”

      Oh. For fuck’s sake.

  5. Jay June 7, 2010 at 3:48 pm #

    I signed the petition! 🙂

    Although there’s obviously zero chance of getting Paul’s support, I think it’s a clever idea to get people talking.

    Perhaps someone could also start circulating a petition asking Rand Paul to extend his professed support for ‘freedom of association’ to Americans’ freedom to associate with people born in Mexico. 😛

  6. Justen Robertson June 7, 2010 at 4:24 pm #

    If he doesn’t at least state that he honors Red & Black’s right to exclude I’d actually be surprised. I seriously doubt you’ll get him showing up and shaking hands – he is after all campaigning in Kentucky – but this is a good litmus test for whether he’s a true or faux libertarian.

    • Roderick June 7, 2010 at 5:10 pm #

      Why would he make any statement about it one way or the other if he can avoid doing so? He hardly wants to alienate his conservative supporters by saying he supports it, or to alienate his libertarian supporters by saying he doesn’t, if there’s any chance of just not making a statement.

    • RWW June 10, 2010 at 10:10 am #

      Do we really need a litmus test at this point?

  7. dennis June 7, 2010 at 4:39 pm #

    He’s not even a faux libertarian. He has repeatedly said that he’s not a libertarian but a conservative.

    • Roderick June 7, 2010 at 5:12 pm #

      He claims to be a conservative, but maybe he’s really a faux libertarian. 🙂

  8. Bob Kaercher June 8, 2010 at 2:26 pm #

    I signed the petition.

    I’m sorry, but anyone who thinks Rand Paul is libertarian enough for any voting libertarian’s vote is simply self-deluded. Not only has he explicitly denied being a libertarian, he’s said that libertarianism is an “albatross” that the mainstream media has been trying to “hang around [his] neck”:

    http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1972721,00.html

    So I think I know what his answer to the petition would be. And why any professed libertarian would think he’s worth sticking up for is really baffling.

    And I second Charles’ Tea Party analysis.

    • Roderick June 8, 2010 at 2:39 pm #

      Paul seems to have forgotten that the reason the Ancient Mariner had to have an albatross hung around his neck is that he had shot the albatross and thereby doomed the whole crew.

    • Roderick June 18, 2010 at 4:02 pm #

      I wonder if there’ll be calls to boycott the Middletown one for refusing solidarity with the Portland one.

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